Saturday, August 13, 2011

Quite often, you'll find a heartwarming story about dogs that have been rescued from another part of the globe and brought to Canada to live the good life. Just today I came across this story of two dogs that have come from Iran. One of the things I am proud to identify with being a Canadian is our collective sense of charity, but we are misguided in not tackling our own pet population problem first.

I'm sure I'll get many detractors. That's fine, as I get a kick out of people who hate logic. We have hundreds of thousands of pets in our very own country who need help RIGHT NOW (in Toronto alone, the feral cat population is estimated to be between 100 000 and 300 000), yet we want to add to this number by bringing in more? It's simple math. For every pet we bring into this country, we are conversely ruining the life of one from our own home.

You may argue that what makes our country so great is that we afford other individuals the opportunity to come here and lead a life that in most instances is a far cry better than the one they are accustomed to in their country of origin. The argument is not applicable to pets, as every time an immigrant comes to this country hoping for a better tomorrow, they are not contributing to a population growth that is exceeding any reasonable effort to effectively sustain our lifestyle. Last I checked, we weren't euthanizing people in this country. Would you object to immigrants coming into this country if the end result was a staggering number of people starving and living on the street, to the point that the only method of curbing the problem was to kill thousands a day? You bet your ass you would. I'll go ahead & wager your ass.

Every day rescues from across the country travel south of the border to rescue pets in need. God knows how many hundreds are coming in. Noble intentions aside, how can these groups not see the direct impact their actions have here? Hurray, you just saved the lives of an entire litter of puppies from Buffalo and brought them to animal heaven in Ontario! Now do me a favour & go spread that great news to the litter in Ontario who have a day to live because there are no prospective homes for them. There might have been, but the Buffalo pups took their spaces. Don't think for a second that all of the pets brought into this country go on to live happily ever after either. Some don't go on to live at all, since they are just as susceptible to the consequences of our pet overpopulation upon their entry.

I am not for a second suggesting that any pets outside our borders are less deserving of compassion on our part. We can have compassion. We can go ahead and write cheques, but we simply have to stop bringing these pets here. I'm not speaking with nationalism, rather with common sense. Bringing in "refugee" pets contributes to the unending cycle of pet overpopulation in this country. The more we bring in, the more we kill.

Once we finally achieve some semblance of a controlled pet population in our own country, by all means we can and should welcome pets from other nations with open arms. Let's just try to fix our own epidemic first, because if we don't we're making it worse not only for Canadian pets, but for those who might have a chance to experience a full and happy life here.

So I'm gonna rock the boat a bit here with the idea that many of us have realized long ago...PET OVERPOPULATION IS A MYTH sold to you by the shelters who are PAID to kill your pets. Thinks about it..what fundraising ploy could the HSI or HSUS use aside from threatening the lives of our pets if we do not contribute. The studies have been done and answers found. Each community needs to work together with all resources to complete our no kill nation. Do us all a favour and make this guy your friend...Nathan Winograd...he dedicates his whole life to stopping the senseless killing of our pets and helping communities come together for the same cause..the animals. http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=10627

something that really irks me about this argument: ppl that bring pets over from other countries have, in the majority of cases i've read, already met the dog. it's a soldier serving overseas, tourists that rescued a trapped/ill/injured/abused dog and fell in love, and so on.

dogs are not furniture - if you don't like the one from sears, head over to IKEA and get another that's a nice shape and colour.

dogs are PEOPLE. they have personalities.

what would you think of a system where ppl adopted children by stepping up to a counter and said "yeah, gimme the combo five, extra blue, easy on the blonde, and i'll take that in a girl, please"?

my bff and i have been involved in pet rescue for nearly two decades and you know what? i can't even COUNT the number of canadian dog shelters we've seen with empty spaces.

if canadian dogs are so abundant and overflowing the shelters, why are shelters charging *hundreds* of dollars? seriously: check north bay ontario animal shelter rates - the dog's not even spayed or neutered; you pay 3 or 4 hundred bucks for the dog and you get a $50 discount off the 2 - 3 hundred dollar spay/neuter procedure. no wonder people head to the states (where we pulled a dog, fully vetted, flea treated, neutered, temperament assessed, the whole nine yards, for $50, then paid $140 for transport from florida to ontario!) or to breeders, where for far less than that, they can get a purebred puppy of known provenance!

never mind education, how about making spay/neuter more affordable? ontario's only just gotten high-speed low-cost spay-neuter clinics in the last couple of years but ppl will have to drive hours to get to them, since far as i know, the closest one north is barrie, ontario, and it's ppl in north bay and up from there that really need the help.

Lawrence Park Animal Hospital

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York Professional Pet Sitting

PetVibe

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